title: Newest Vital Sign as a proxy for medication adherence in older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the utility of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) as a proxy for medication adherence in community-dwelling older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  12 adult day care centers in the Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal, between March and May 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  100 white community-dwelling older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were administered the NVS, Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS), and self-reported Measure of Adherence to Therapy (MAT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Health literacy and medication adherence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean (±SD) age of the respondents was 73.3 ± 7.8 years and 71% were women. The NVS score was 0.81 ± 0.10 (of 6 possible points), and 95% of the respondents scored in the three lowest possible scores, indicating a notable floor effect. Age was found to be inversely correlated with NVS score (P = 0.003). The MAT score was 36.2 ± 4.7 (range 17-42). No statistically significant association between the NVS and level of education (P = 0.059 [Kruskal-Wallis]), gender (P = 0.700 [Mann-Whitney]), SILS (P = 0.167), or MAT (P = 0.379) was identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The utility of the NVS as a proxy for medication adherence in community-dwelling older adults is limited because of a floor effect that hinders its predictive power for medication adherence.
authors.forename: Teresa M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Salgado
authors.forename: Sara B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Clésia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sobreira
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Canas
authors.forename: Inês
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cunha
authors.forename: Shalom I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Benrimoj
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fernandez-Llimos
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011174:Portugal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires